Subset Sum Problem ADSA
Subset Sum Problem ADSA
Set: In mathematical terms, a set is defined as a collection of similar types of objects. The
entities or objects of a set must be related to each other through the same rule.
Subset: Suppose there are two sets namely set P and set Q. The set P is said to be a subset
of set Q, only if all the elements of set P also belong to the set Q and vice-versa need not be
true.
All possible subsets of the given set, where sum of each element for every subset is the same as the
given sum value are given below −
{1 9 7 18}
{1 9 5 20}
{5 18 12}
In solving the subset sum problem, the backtracking approach is used for selecting a valid subset.
When an item is not valid, we will backtrack to get the previous subset and add another element to get
the solution.
In the worst-case scenario, backtracking approach may generate all combinations, however, in general,
it performs better than the naive approach.
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Follow the below steps to solve subset sum problem using the backtracking approach −
If the subset is equal to the sum value, mark it as a part of the solution.
If the subset is not a solution and it is less than the sum value, add next element to the subset
until a valid solution is found.
Now, move to the next element in the set and check for another solution until all combinations
have been tried.
Example
In this example, we are illustrating how to solve the subset sum problem in various programming
languages.
Open Compiler
#include <stdio.h>
#define SIZE 7
void displaySubset(int subSet[], int size) {
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
printf("%d ", subSet[i]);
}
printf("\n");
}
void subsetSum(int set[], int subSet[], int n, int subSize, int total,
int nodeCount ,int sum) {
if( total == sum) {
//print the subset
displaySubset(subSet, subSize);
//for other subsets
if (subSize != 0)
subsetSum(set,subSet,n,subSize-2,total-
set[nodeCount],nodeCount+1,sum);
return;
}else {
//find node along breadth
for( int i = nodeCount; i < n; i++ ) {
subSet[subSize] = set[i];
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Output
1 9 7 18
1 9 5 20
5 18 12